Smell is all bourbon and wood, caramel, molasses, a little roast, but its fighting through alot of sweetness. Flavor is sweet molasses, chocolate bourbon balls, lots of booze, still pretty hot. The finish is creamy and milky, sliding down your throat.

Overall, this is a bit hot right now, would like to see it smooth out a little.

Pours a color that is nearly black and has a pretty good light mocha head that sticks around for a bit before falling to a thin collar. The nose brings some really nice bourbon along with oak and a fairly-strong vanilla presence. Light chocolate lingers in the background along with some hints of roast. In the end, however, this is all about the bourbon. The flavor is quite nice. The bourbon permeates everything and is incredibly smooth. I really like what this has done to the base beer. Good, thick body that is supremely smooth without any hint of the 10.5 ABV. Overall, a great beer that really has me looking forward to the next Jackie O's stout release.

The fine folks of Athen's premier brewery finds great success with the Dark Apparition. So why not challenge that notion with barrel-aging for greater complexity, aged compounds and a simmering boost of strength? That's just what happens in this bourbon-barrel aged edition.

As the nose dives into the glass, a boisterous rift of coffee, burnt sugars, creamy malt, maple, molasses and chocolate waft about. Those are hard to distinguish from the bourbon influences- cherry wood, caramel, vanilla, marzipan and aged notes of sherry or port come to mind as the mouth waters nearing that first sip.

Getting the cart before the horse, its appearance pours with a mysterious dark brown hue that's ominously of tree bark. While its body is chocked full of shady cocoa powder, its head is thinly laced and captures a hue of mocha. Its low-forming head and necklace of lace suggests that the beer's alcohol and barrel complexities have gotten the better of its foam character.

But those fudge, brownie and mocha flavors are sooo irresistible as the malty-rich taste of roasted malt, espresso and bitter chocolates unapologetically grope the taste buds with its sultry sherry-like fruitiness and aged beautification. Those light meaty, savory, fruity and minerally characteristics pave the way for a decadent finish of rum and chocolate with spicy warmth and coffee-like tendencies.

Without any doubt, the body is full but is also picked apart with wine-like acidities, bourbon warmth, wood spices and cocoa dryness for a finish that is powdery, minerally and plaster-like despite its dessert-like effects.

This Bourbon Barrel Aged Apparition Ale accurately delivers on its whisky effects. Even though I taste "bourbon-esque" character, I feel that much of that comes from the malts where much of the "bourbon" influences are simply of whisky. I gotta question those spicy booze flavors as opposed to the more savory "bourbon" influences.

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a small dark brown foamy head with light retention. Aroma of corn and light vanilla with some light black chocolate and alcohol fusel is good. Taste is a complex mix of corn and vanilla with some bourbon which rounds the edge of this beer. Body is full with low carbonation and some fusel alcohol is perceptible. Not bad though I prefered the brandy barrel version.

Black as night, completely opaque with a huge billowing head of tan up and over the top of the glass. Really enormous look to it. Cascading head fell back down to earth and still at over two inches high refused to gain any ground what so ever.

Huge aroma of bourbon, rich chocolate notes and wonderful hints of molasses. As it warms it takes on a very sweet note, with touches of coffee adding a slight bitter nose to it. Really well defined though I have to admit here. Lots of bourbon, with that vanilla character very prominent indeed. Rich vanilla notes undermined the huge coffee and chocolate flavors, vanilla, molasses, hints of oak notes, sublime. Even as it comes up to near room temperature it keeps its insanely rich character.

Strong aromas of brown sugar and molasses, musty oak, toasted coconut and chocolate syrup. Bourbon is present but integrated, and there's a berry-like fruit character. Alcohol is noticeable too, though it's not harsh. While it smells good, the barrel doesn't seem to gel as well as it could with the base beer.

Bourbon, earthy oak and chocolate flavors hit the palate first. Coconut sweetness, sharp alcohol and berry preserves. Full bodied, but not as viscous as Oil of Aphrodite. Finishes with mellow alcohol and chocolate-caramel candy sweetness. This is pretty impressive.

Liter swing-top growler into several glasses. Thanks go to FooFaa for bringing this one to the party.

Pours a dense black, with a 1/2 finger covering of burnt mocha head. This stays quite frothy around the edges, leaving a big creamy cascade of heavy lacing behind. Just a good RIS look and the retention held up pretty well for a BA Sout. Chocolate is very rich smelling in the aroma, along with notes of roast and coffee, which give this some crunch in the nose. The Bourbon is very assertive here, with vanilla and woody textures helping smooth some of the more aggressive aspects of it out but make no mistake that this is a huge part of the monster bouquet on this.

Chocolate roast is just as huge in the taste, giving this a rich chewy sweetness. The Bourbon character is no slouch either, giving the profile a big boozy and dry feel. This finishes with lingering roast, a smack of vanilla, and a deep tannic dryness which literally sucks all of the moisture out of your mouth after each sip. The mouthfeel is VERY much on the full bodied side, with a huge chewiness to it that then gets much slicker feeling the more it sits in the mouth. This appears to handle its large ABV rather well, with most of the warmth coming from the barrel.

I really dug this for the most part. Very deep tasting with a complex strength to it, the only thing really holding this back is the aggressiveness of the Bourbon itself. This is one best enjoyed in smaller quantities as a sipper. I couldn't imagine tackling a large quantity of this by myself.

Thanks to Brad from Jackie O's for bringing this by on Sunday. Served in a Cigar City snifter.

A - Pours with a quick-dissolving tan foam that settles to a thin ring and light film. The body is nearly pitch black, with a hint of brown at the fringes.

S - Honey, dark bread, vanilla, and light oak that emerges more as it warms up. There's also some caramel, fudge, maple, and s'mores character.

T - The taste is more barrel-influenced, with healthy amounts of vanilla and butterscotch complementing the honeyed date and fig malt character. The oak and barrel tannins do a good job at keeping things from being overly sweet and cloying.

D - Uh...yes. This was quite a bit better than the Highland Weasel we had immediately before. With the honey and maple characters it reminded me a tiny, tiny, bit of Kaggen! and Imperial Eclipse - good company to be in. I think those that score bottles in a few weeks will be quite happy with this one.

Dark, obsidian black pour, with maybe some dark brown around the edges, a dark mocha head dissipated to a thin, wispy layer, and the beer left some oily traces on the glass. Aroma of dark malts, chocolate, vanilla, bourbon-soaked oak. The taste reflected the aroma, and then some. Smooth bourbon, vanilla, toffee, butterscotch, dark malts and dark chocolate, undertones of dark fruits. Smooth, full body, creamy and warming. I liked this beer a lot, and since it sat untouched for a while, I had no problem helping myself to a second generous serving.